30 days of Thankfulness (or at least 26...)

One of my biggest pet-peeves is that the minute Halloween is over (and often a few weeks before) Christmas is everywhere. In the stores, on the radio, on people's lawns (in the form of various decorations). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas. I just feel like Thanksgiving gets a bum deal. I love Thanksgiving. A big part of that is that I truly enjoy the food...but I think it's so important, at least once a year, to take a moment to really think about all of the things I have to be thankful for. And then to take another moment to thank God for all of these things. I have a friend who does "Thankful Thursdays" on her blog (monkeys-on-the-bed.blogspot.com), and I so enjoy reading those posts, and then thinking about what I would write for my own Thankful Thursday. My wonderful husband has a thank you book that he has kept for over 10 years where he writes 5 things from that day that he is thankful for - every day! I think thankfulness often gets over looked...especially this time of year when the holiday for thankfullness is sandwiched between 2 very commercialized holidays...

So, in order to fully celebrate this holiday and to truly get myself in the thankful spirit, I decided to do 30 days of Thankfulness (or at least 26...because the day after Thanksgiving I tend to throw myself completely into Christmas, although I would like to keep the thankfulness going...). I will definitely NOT do a thankful post every day (in October I killed myself trying to go for the record of most posts in a month this year - too competitive, and nothing to compete in, so I made up my own competition...), but I will try to keep track, and post the important ones. Here are my things today:

I am thankful for:

My package from FestiveFrills.etsy.com arriving! I often get asked if I have 2 boys (even when Allie is dressed head to toe in pink!), and had been looking for some adorable hair bows. A friend makes these and sells them at her Etsy store. I saw them, and loved them (suddenly nothing I could find at Target was good enough). I finally was able to buy a few things, and getting the package was like Christmas. The photos you see are from the photo shoot I did with Allie while we played dress up! Not only was it a treat to open the package, but I am so thankful that I will no longer be asked if I have 2 boys!!!

Ryan's hair. Sounds silly, but the poor little guys has been practically bald since birth. The little bit of fuzz he had was so blonde you couldn't see it. I often got defensive when people would exclaim, "he's so bald!" His hair has suddenly grown though, and today it was actually sticking up a bit (I added some water to make it darker so it would be more visible in the pictures - can you see it? If not click on the photo to make it larger...I'm pretty sure you'll see it then!). I am thankful that I will, hopefully, no longer have to defend my poor, hair-challenged, little man!

The wonderful fellowship in the cry room at church. The twins were sick for several weeks (and we didn't want to spread the germs), and then when we were finally back everyone else was gone! The room was full today, and I loved the opportunity to fellowship with these women (even if we spent more time talking about vaccines and feeding issues than listening...), and for my babies to play with other babies (besides each other).

My wonderful husband who was willing to leave his lunch sitting next to him, getting cold, when he was so hungry because he hadn't eaten anything since very early this morning, to feed the babies so I could pump. It's a little thing, but I truly appreciated the sacrifice - and the many other sacrifices he has made over the last few months.

The freedom to be out and about. Visiting the hospital yesterday brought back all of the memories of the many weeks of bedrest...stuck in one room for many of the weeks...only free to walk to the bathroom...I love fresh air, and my own bed, and running errands (even though I hate running errands, I'm glad I'm able to). If only I could somehow reclaim the desire to exercise I had during that time!

That the Halloween candy is almost gone. Not because we had so many trick-or-treaters (we had none), but because Lucas and I already ate so much of it (mostly me). As soon as it is gone we are NOT buying more! I'll really need to get back that desire to exercise if we do!!

That I was actually able to finish this post!! Something I did kept causing an error, and it would completely shut me down. I am also thankful that Blogger autosaved my draft, otherwise I would have had to do several re-writes (and time is precious...I probably would have just given up!)

I would love to hear, during the month of November, some of the things you are thankful for!